Archive for December 18th, 2008

Ok, so not really a sports video, but it involves punching in the face, and that’s sometimes a sporting activity. Anyways, it makes me laugh, and my best friend is in it, so, you know, eat it. And by eat it, I mean watch the video.

While doing an event with WEEI’s Dennis and Callahan to help fund raise for Curt Schilling’s ALS charities, Schill took some questions from the audience and had some interesting words to say about his time with Manny Ramirez as a teammate. Most interesting, Schilling revealed that during his years as a teammate he and Manny had 4 different physical run-ins with each other. Curt also claimed that his teammates stopped him from going after Manny the first time Schilling noticed him taking a play off, early on in Schilling’s tenure as a Red Sox. None of this is particularly “news” but it’s interesting nonetheless, I have a feeling that years from now when a bunch more books are written about these Red Sox teams that we’re going to learn a lot more about who Manny Ramirez was behind the scenes and how his teammates reacted to him. In the meantime, we have the chief blowhard Schilling out there letting us know.

As everyone gears up for the end of the year and goes on autopilot, we see an constant stream of end-of-the-year wrap ups and such, most of which are useless and repetitive. Sports Illustrated posted a pretty nice gallery of some of the greatest photos from the year though, which I’m sure we’ll see 500 times elsewhere, but I saw this one first, so everyone else is following off that one, to me.

Anyhoo, there are some pretty sweet photos in the gallery, which is located here, and I recommend you check it out when you get a chance. To save some time, I’m posting my favorite ones here. Smooches!

No, I’m not talking about season 3 of NBC’sFriday Night Lights, which is AWESOME and returns to the high-quality standardof the perfect 1st season (don’t get me started on season 2), but the actual field of the Permian Panthers, on whom the Dillon Panthers are based. Based on testing done by the Environmental Protection Agency, Ratliff Stadium’s artificial turf field has levels of lead that are approximately 14 times the EPA standards. Another nearby school, in the Birdville district of Fort Worth also tested for high levels of lead, nearly 10 times the standard. Both stadiums feature the same kind of turf, known as AstroPlay, and the high lead levels were found in a secondary layer of nylon fiber known as the “root zone. Neither field had lead levels at the top level of the fields where players make contact, but the Birdville stadium had lead in the water running off the field, which is a sign that the lead is being released into the larger environment.

“Our opinion is that AstroPlay turf could pose a human health risk,” wrote Michael T. Abel, project manager at the Lubbock lab that conducted the test.

School officials in Birdville are monitoring the situation carefully, but also admitted that they don’t have the $300-400,000 needed to replace the 5-year old turf. Other stadiums in Texas have been shut down for lower levels of lead, as has a playground at a Beverly Hills, California which also featured AstroPlay.

The manufacturers of artificial turf dismiss charges that the fields are dangerous, contending that the lead is contained in fibers below the surface. The other side argues that as use and sunlight degrade the quality of the field the risks and dangers drastically increase.

Despite nearly a dozen other districts that feature AstroPlay turf fields, only Odessa and Birdville tested their fields, believing it not to be a major concern. “We’re not burying our head in the sand,” said Joe Loerwald, athletic director for the Round Rock school district outside Austin, which has an AstroPlay field. “But, at the same time, we don’t see it as a prevalent problem.”

Experts in the field, like Winifred Hamilton the director of environmental health at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston disagree. “It seems to me that we’ve jumped into something without properly understanding it,” she said.

Based on this Christmas card from Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell (top left) he seems to have a decent sense of humor, or a really really bad sense of style. Supposedly this is a photo with some of his fraternity friends, but that isn’t for certain, nor am I 100% that it is Harrell, but c’mon, those sweaters are KILLER!

Even though I hate college sports, I do love me a horrible sweater, and damned if there ain’t THREE awesomely terrible ones in this photo. It nearly brings a tear to my eye.

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